Sinton completes sweep of West Oso

Speedy Pirates capitalize on Bears' errors

It is difficult to beat a speedy team. And when a ballclub throws
itself on a grenade as many times as West Oso High School did Saturday
afternoon, it makes winning nearly impossible.

That is what the error-prone Bears faced this weekend against a
seasoned Sinton squad, which completed a sweep of the best-of-3 Class
3A area softball series at Cabaniss Field with a 4-3 victory.

Sinton (25-6-1) advances to play Crystal City in the Region IV-3A
quarterfinals later this week. The Javelinas rallied to take two games
from Raymondville on Saturday to win their best-of-3 series 2-1.

"The key for us is to put the ball in play on offense and try to let
our speed take over from there," Sinton coach Andy Villasana said. "We
get those runners on, (then) we like to move them around."

The District 30-3A champion Pirates (25-6-1) did just that in the
bottom of the first inning, making things easier for senior Whitney
Foley. Foley struck out 15 Bears in improving to 8-0.

Sinton scored four times on just two hits off Oso senior Justine
Rodriguez (18-8). Pirates catcher Rubi Reyna delivered the lone RBI of
the inning on a single to center that scored Kacee Castillo, who
reached on a dink single very close to the third-base line and then
stole second. The Bears committed five of their eight errors in the
opening inning, and Kristen Shedd - Friday's winning pitcher in the
13-3 romp - Mimi May and Mindy Deanda also had stolen bases.

After beating La Feria 7-3 in bi-district in their first postseason
trip, the Bears committed 18 errors in the two-game set with
Sinton.

"This is our first time making the playoffs, so I think it was more
nerves than anything," said West Oso coach Daniel Castillo, whose Bears
close the season at 20-11. "We've never had problems like this, today
and yesterday. The girls were nervous. After we settled down we looked
pretty good. We had our chances, though.

"We didn't make any errors (against La Feria). I think it was more
the speed of Sinton," he said. "They were a little quicker on the
bases, and our girls were kind of rushing the throws. But we did well
to hold them 4-3, and we had a chance at the end."

Oso had that chance in the seventh when Rodriguez reached on a
two-out error, but Foley shut the door with her 15th strikeout.

Danielle Gomez's RBI single in the second and Valerie Colunga's
eighth home run of the year, a two-run no-doubter in the third, brought
Oso within 4-3. Other than that, however, Foley was in control.

"She really only made one mistake today, the home run pitch. She
caught a little bit too much of the plate, and she paid the price,"
Villasana said. "But outside of that one pitch, she pitched an
extraordinary game.

"She's thrown maybe four innings in the last three, four weeks.
What's extra special is she came back from a broken cheekbone and
broken nose about eight weeks ago in the Yoakum game," Villasana said.
"She's done a great job."